{"id":277767,"date":"2026-05-20T07:12:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T07:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277767\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T07:12:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T07:12:47","slug":"ellison-ceo-wants-to-build-epicenter-of-innovation-in-st-petes-gas-plant-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277767\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellison CEO Wants To Build ‘Epicenter Of Innovation’ In St. Pete’s Gas Plant District"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city of St. Petersburg, Florida, is nearing a decision on which company will spearhead\u00a0the\u00a0Gas Plant District redevelopment<\/a>, a mixed-use project that\u2019s poised to change the face of the downtown area.<\/p>\n

One of the four bidders left in the running<\/a>, Ark Ellison Horus, is hoping to make the city \u201cthe epicenter of innovation, technology and education,\u201d according to Ellison Cos. CEO Casey Ellison. Ark Ellison Horus is a consortium comprising\u00a0Ark Invest, Ellison Development<\/a>\u00a0and Horus Construction Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ellison was speaking at Bisnow\u2019s Tampa Bay State of the Market<\/a>\u00a0at The Motor Enclave in Tampa on May 14. He said the consortium\u2019s proposal focuses on delivering community needs, culture and innovation into the city.<\/p>\n

\"Ellison<\/a><\/p>\n

\n High-rises in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida\n <\/p>\n

It will be \u201cthe first-ever purposely designed events district in the nation,\u201d Ellison said, adding that he expects big-name tech companies to move into \u201ca robust office program\u201d of more than 1M SF of Class-A product downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue that this is probably one of the most consequential sites in the U.S.,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in an incredible city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 86-acre site of the planned redevelopment currently houses the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 baseball stadium,\u00a0Tropicana Field<\/a>, which will be demolished once a new stadium is built. The Rays\u00a0and local officials\u00a0reached a $2.3B agreement for a new ballpark<\/a>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch<\/a> is expected to pick a final proposal next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Welch, the city\u2019s first Black mayor, made\u00a0redeveloping the Historic Gas Plant District<\/a> one of his main goals when he took office in 2022. The district was originally a Black neighborhood that was\u00a0razed to make way for Tropicana Field in the 1980s<\/a>. Though plans had been set in motion, they were delayed after two devastating hurricanes in 2024.\u00a0Welch reissued a new call for proposals for the project in January.<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Bisnow\n <\/p>\n

\n Ellison Cos.’ Casey Ellison\n <\/p>\n

Chief among the community-oriented factors included in Ark Ellison Horus\u2019 redevelopment plan is affordable housing<\/a>. Ellison said there will be approximately 1,900 affordable housing units, and the company\u2019s published proposal<\/a> shows them split\u00a0among regular, senior and workforce categories. In total, there would be more than 3,700 new homes. The affordable units would be delivered in Phase 1.<\/p>\n

Also detailed in the proposal are 1,543 hotel rooms across mixed-use towers \u201cto expand tourism capacity.\u201d And about half of the site would be reserved for public parks, culture and civic space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other components include an art program led by local artists. Ellison said a musical festival similar to SXSW would take place at the redevelopment every year.<\/p>\n

Ark Ellison Horus notes an estimated $120M cost\u00a0to the city for its redevelopment plan, with the project\u2019s 30-year economic impact forecast at $28B.<\/p>\n

The three other development teams in the running are Foundation Vision Partners, The Burg Bid LLC, which includes Blake Investment Partners, and the Pinellas County Housing Authority. Pinellas is proposing<\/a> to build a single, affordable senior housing development on less than an acre of the land.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of St. Petersburg, Florida, is nearing a decision on which company will spearhead\u00a0the\u00a0Gas Plant District redevelopment,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[25136,118556,23180,18224,202,204,203,199,201,200,1526],"class_list":["post-277767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-ellison-development","tag-historic-redevelopment","tag-mixed-use","tag-redevelopment","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}